History of the Learned Book

The course takes full advantage of the university library's Special Collections to examine the key historic works contributing to the advancement of learning and the organization of knowledge. Beginning with medieval manuscripts and progressing through all areas of human inquiry during the age of print, the course explores the economic and educational history of learned publishing in the West, while examining what these historic artifacts reveal about developments in the structure and authority, production and circulation, technology and aesthetics, of learning and knowledge.